Smile
by TheMisfitToy
Summary: A drabble-y one shot with feels and sadness. Ino/Sakura can be interpreted either way. R&R always appreciated.
Disclaimer! I do not own Naruto or any associated characters and/or media

Ino doesn't cry when they lower the coffin into the cold, hard earth.

She hasn't cried since she held her best friend in her arms and begged her not to die, begged her not to leave her alone.

But as she stands in front of the grave, she remembers their lives together.

From the shy little girl whose hand she held their first day at the academy, to their pre-teen rivalry for the affection of the boy who would break both their hearts, remembers the brave, powerful kunoichi she blossomed into with her sunny smiles and earth shaking punches.

All their late nights spent gossiping and painting each others nails. Getting drunk on cheap beer for the first time, the aftermath of their first kills, when the guilt seems never ending, being held as she sobbed for the loss of her beloved father.

The two of them cuddled together in Ino's twin size bed, whispering secrets and memorising the sound of one another's heartbeats.

Sharing their successes and failures because for all their bickering and petty fights, no one had ever understood them as well as they had understood one another.

Worst of all, she remembers watching her best friend flash stepping towards her warring teammates, heading for her death at the hands of two of her boys.

She remembers running across blood soaked ground, shoving people aside in her frantic need to get to her best friend, her beautiful, amazing best friend who is slumped on dirty ground, two holes ripping through the pale flesh of her shoulder and chest, teammates sobbing uselessly by her side.

Teammates who she pushes past, hands glowing green with medical chakra as she desperately tries to heal wounds that have obliterated tissue and bone, wounds which pump with crimson blood, staining the ground and the ends of pastel pink hair. Blood that covers her arms and seeps into the fabric of her skirt even as she forces decimated cells to replicate at several times their normal rate, even as she orders her friend not to close her eyes, pleads and commands and frantically shoves chakra into the body in front of her.

Ino remembers cold hands coming to rest over hers, hazy viridian eyes looking up at her with resignation and pain and so much love it threatens to burn the blonde alive; because one of her greatest fears has come true, because this isn't how it was supposed to end.

" _Hey Pig? Smile for me? You always look so beautiful when you smile"_

She remembers the blood that dribbled from the corner of petal pink lips, still hears the rattle of blood filled lungs trying desperately to take in oxygen, the phantom feeling of her cheeks pulling and lips moving into a smile, even as her battered heart shatters in her chest.

" _I l-l-love you, Ino. T-thank you for n-never l-leaving me"_

She doesn't know how long she knelt there, holding the rapidly cooling corpse of her best friend, her partner in crime, her goddamn _world_ to her chest, but even if she'd held the girl until the sun burned itself out it would never be enough.

The rage that burned hot and thick in her chest is again something she doesn't remember, she can't remember screaming so hard she damaged her vocal cords, her mind cannot recall the acidic words she spits at the murderers; the feel of her teammates dragging her away are a distant memory.

Because when Sakura died, the world stopped, everything ceased to exist except the body of a girl she'd loved since childhood, the limpness of her limbs and the silence of a heartbeat that she'd memorised years ago.

Ino knows that her very being is being buried in the unforgiving ground, but she can't bring herself to care, even as other funeral goers sob and whisper prayers and deliver eulogies that are probably very moving.

So no, Ino doesn't cry as she watches people throwing earth onto the cherry wood casket. because Sakura wanted to see her smile, and Ino's never been able to deny Sakura anything


End file.
